Former NFL Players Dump Painkillers for Cannabis

A growing and passionate army of NFL and former NFL players are starting to speak out about the efficacy of marijuana as an alternative to potentially deadly league approved painkillers. 30 former NFL players are currently participating in a study on cannabis oil as an opioid alternative.

The 30 former players in California were selected last summer for the eight-week study. Players in the study started out with cannabis oil doses the size of a rice grain and worked their way up, increasing the dosage about every four days.

Kyle Turley's prognosis is grim- he was told to be ready for more or less a lifetime of pain. “I need a new right hip, I need two right knees. I have got a plate and ten screws in my right ankle. I am bone-on-bone in every joint,“ Turley told CBS. “I have tried nearly every one of Big Pharma’s medications to deal with nearly every injury and ailment that you could possibly think of and none of them have reached the mark that cannabis has reached with me.” NFL stars like Turley could benefit from the outcome of the study.

With help from studies like this, cannabis could help take out drugs frequently abused in the NFL such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, fentanyl and more.

Former NFL quarterback Jake Plummer slammed the NFL's stance on marijuana, and highlighted allegations of the NFL denying the link between playing football professionally and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. An astonishingly high amount of ex-NFL players suffer from chronic traumatic encephaly. According to PBS, 96 percent of NFL players suffer from brain trauma, and many have argued that the NFL's CTE program should include marijuana.

Former Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman Eugene Monroe has had enough. After retiring last July, he could no longer keep silent. "The last 18 years have been full of traumatic injuries to both my head and my body,” Monroe said in a statement. "I'm not complaining, just stating a fact. Has the damage to my brain already been done? Do I have CTE? I hope I don't, but over 90% of the brains of former NFL players that have been examined showed signs of the disease. I am terrified."

Researchers are still in the process of conducting the study, but we'll keep you posted on any development.

Benjamin Adams is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in a slew of publications including CULTURE, Cannabis Now Magazine and The 420 Book and Vice. Follow Ben on Twitter @BenBot11 and Facebook @byBenBot.